


Jet Black Hearts 1.15: Kathleen Hudak

by voleuse



Series: Jet Black Hearts [15]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:40:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27185312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voleuse/pseuds/voleuse
Summary: IfKathleencouldn't be a cop, who could she be?
Series: Jet Black Hearts [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1979008
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	Jet Black Hearts 1.15: Kathleen Hudak

**Author's Note:**

> Set after 1.15, "The Benders."

It was that last bullet that haunted her. The crack that kept her ears ringing, the bright copper smell that swirled ever around her.

The hell of it was, she didn't feel guilty about it at all.

***

Kathleen dove deep into tracking down the families of the rest of the victims--that they could identify--and she found the paperwork strangely comforting. She wasn't one of the bereaved, then, but rather a processer. She searched, cataloged, and notified.

The mess with the Bender family, however, was scandalous enough to pull the gaze of the press. As if being the arresting officer wasn't attention-drawing enough, once word got out Riley had been abducted all those years ago, Kathleen couldn't escape the ringing of her phone.

One day, the sheriff called her into the office. Apparently they'd attracted enough of a spotlight that the county wanted to give her some sort of recognition.

Kathleen gave them her resignation instead.

***

She used some of her savings to hide out for a while. Nothing fancy, just a fishing cabin at a lakeside resort, slightly out-of-season. She slept late, read a stack of novels, made herself a regular at a local diner, and cried through every sunset.

After a week of proper mourning, Kathleen drafted email after email to other family members, trying to explain Riley's fate. She never sent any of them.

She thought about all the missing persons files she had gone through in the past weeks, and all the cases that remained unsolved. She thought of the relief of the families when she spoke to them, before the horror had sunk in.

She thought about the two Bender brothers, still awaiting trial, and the girl, wreaking havoc at a juvenile detention center, last she checked. She thought, once again, of that last bullet.

And with that, she knew what she was going to do next.


End file.
